Using left over park passes?

[angedeaile]

I have heard some folks on here mention a great money saver for future trips is to just buy a 10-day park pass with no exp. added on.

So, if you are going on vacation and use 5 park passes, you have 5 passes left for a future vacation. It looks like a good money saver, but my question is what if I wanted to add on in the future?

I am a huge fan of doing packages and add ons. I already intended on buying my tickets with the park hopper option on, since I love hoppin.

On my next trip, I do not intend on adding on a water park and more option, since it will be December. However, I might want to have the water parks and more option on my future trip.

SO lets say in May, I want to take a trip and use the 5 park hopper tickets I had left, would I be able to add on to those tickets?

If I do decide to buy a 10 day park hopper pass with no exp., anything else I should take into consideration?

[ctennis]

SO lets say in May, I want to take a trip and use the 5 park hopper tickets I had left, would I be able to add on to those tickets?


Yeah, absolutely you can add on the water park option at a later time. However, the cost is the same as paying for it up front or paying for it later. So, if you have an inclination to go to the water parks while you're there in December, weather cooperating, it will cost the same to add it on then as it will later.

It is a great deal to use the non-expiring option if you can afford it (and don't lose the tickets). My wife and I bought 10 day non-exps for a trip last Feb when Disney was offering free "park hopper and water park" upgrades. Only paid an extra $100 (the non-exp was cheaper back then) and we still have 7 days left to use. Going back for 4 later this year, and will still have 3 for a future trip!

[psychotekkie]

But if you are using leftover tickets, then are you still able to take advantage of special packages? like free-dining packages? Or would you just purchase a one day pass to get in on the deal, and then use your leftovers?

Also, to add on to angedeaile's question, normally when you are in the park, you can add extra base day tickets while you are there, for the reduced rate you normally would get (usually like $3 per day). But let's imagine you are using old non-expired tickets, and then want to add an extra day. Could you still add them for the reduced rate? Cause if you could, then theoretically you could just go forever at the reduced rates.

[DizneyRox]

I don't believe you can add on past the normal 10 day ticket. So, if you bought a 9 day ticket, you can only add on a single day. The limit is whatever they are currently selling, I think 10 day is the limit.

Currently, in order to do a package you need room, tickets, and the dining. A one day ticket is currently all that is needed, but the rumor mill is speculating that Disney will be changing that soon enough. It will probably be that the number of days on the ticket must match the number of nights on the hotel reservation. This will close the current loophole in the system.

[castlegirl]

If I do decide to buy a 10 day park hopper pass with no exp., anything else I should take into consideration?

Just be sure to keep track of days left, who the ticket belongs to (finger scan), and keep in a safe place at home.

We bought a 10 PH day for Dec '05 and still have 3 days left for this July. Best thing we could have done!:thumbsup:

[CleveRocks]

Math and planning are key elements here.

Buying a 10-day non-expiring pass is a great idea if those 10 days of park admissions will cover two or three entire vacations.

But it's a very bad deal if, on a future trip, you'll need to buy an extra few days' worth of tickets to cover all the days you'll want to go into the theme parks.

In other words, let;s say you'll be doing 7 park days this vacation, and will probably return in a year or two and do another 7 park days at that time. It will be cheaper to buy a 7-day pass now and a 7-day pass later, than it would be to buy a 10-day non-expiring pass now and then a 4-day pass next time (you'd have 3 left over from the original pass, so you'd only need 4 more days for the second trip).

I'm too tired to spell out all the math right now, but trust me, it's a BIG difference. Non-expiring tickets can be a great deal, or they can be a sucker deal, it all depends if you check it out first.

[IloveMM]

That's right, figure out the math, it really is a huge difference in cost. We did that, we got the 10 day, and used it for two 5 day vacations. That second year it was great because we used that money we "would" have spent on tickets for other things.
This time, I'm going to explore the math of getting season tickets verses 10 days. We go every year, usually within a week or two of each other, so if, for example, we said Dec 10-16 of this year we could go Dec 2-9 next year > that's in the same year for one season pass. And with that we might do longer than 5 days, we've just got to figure out the calendar and the difference in the $$$. But I'm putting that here to say explore ALL the options!!!! :thumbsup: